


The shadows come to dance

by kasiopeia



Series: To learn what it's like [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baratheon brothers, Book Spoilers, Brothers, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Gen, House Baratheon, Mob AU, Modern AU, sibling relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-23 22:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1580993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kasiopeia/pseuds/kasiopeia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He had thought this dislike they had for each other was something they were going to grow out of but instead age had only served to heighten their differences, to widen the gaps, and to make them all the more knowing of each others weaknesses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The shadows come to dance

Stannis is a leader.

But he was never given anything to lead, all he had he was forced to take. Stannis has always been the boring brother, the brooding brother, the _cruel_ brother. 

Which Stannis finds ironic because no one can be as boring as Renly when he waxes on about his own matters, no one can be as brooding as Ned Stark, the brother Robert chose, and _no one_ can be so cruel as Robert, when he whores, drinks, and kills; all in the name of his family. 

He remembers standing in the reception hall after their parents funeral. Robert on one side, greeting their guests with the appropriate words, while Stannis himself couldn't find the right words at all. Little Renly on the other side kept trying to hold his hand, his small hand was sticky with something, and Stannis didn't like the way he looked up at him. Renly seemed to be expecting something Stannis knew he couldn't give. Something he had no way of even knowing how to begin to give. 

(and it broke his heart that this was all they got now; three lonely brothers and not one who spoke the same language)

Later, after the reception, after Renly had gone to bed; crying and not really understanding what was going on, Robert and Stannis had sat by the kitchen table. Robert had been drunk by this time, Stannis knew, his eyes bloodshot and distant. The didn't speak, Stannis was quiet, he wanted something from his older brother that he couldn't quite name. He found himself hoping in something that he had long since given up on: for Robert to play the big brother, to rise to the occasion and to make this whole situation more bearable.

But planting his hands on the table Robert pushed himself up and said "I'm going back to Jon in the morning." Then he leaves dragging Stannis' hopes with him. Stannis stays up long into the night, alone with his thoughts and plans. 

(It was the last time he expected anything from his brother.) 

He had thought this dislike they had for each other was something they were going to grow out of but instead age had only served to heighten their differences, to widen the gaps, and to make them all the more knowing of each others weaknesses. 

Stannis supposes that it's only fitting that this is where they end up. It is the only way it could end at all.

 

 

 

 

Robert is a hero. 

That is what he has always been told: A golden hero in a dark age. The handsome warrior who could do no wrong. Someone to save everyone from a cruel family who would burn them all. He should have had it all, but once the victory is certain, he realizes that the only thing that has been keeping him going is vengeance, and once that fades he has nothing left.

His happiest memory is the first time he sees Lyanna Stark. (and isn't that telling? Not a single moment spent with or without her surpasses that first glorious meeting.) The sun had been shining and out from the sunshine stepped Lyanna, a vision in white. She was everything Ned had ever told him, everything he had ever wanted in a woman: She was perfection. And in that one moment, Robert was a hero, the golden hero he always knew he was meant to be. 

But moments are fleeting, sunshine fades and turns to ashes. If he is the hero everyone tells him he is, then why does he not get his happy ending? Why does nothing work out the way it should? Why does he die in hot anger and cold regret? 

_Why is his story no happily ever after?_

 

 

 

 

Renly is a child. 

And as a child he loved his brothers. Robert was the hero of his childhood games, the one he looked up to and wanted to be. Stannis was just and strong, with the kind of willpower Renly wished he possessed. 

Renly was seven when what they now call Robert's Rebellion happened. He doesn't remember much from it at all. _Repressed trauma_ the psychiatrist Stannis had forced him to go to had called it. _A mental wall your brain has put in to protect you._ But what he remembers clearly is hiding out in a dingy apartment complex, not being allowed out. Not being able to see his friends, to see his brothers or to even _eat_. He remembers hating Stannis in those weeks, a hate that still burns in his chest when he thinks of it, even if most days it has turned to contempt and something akin to pity. 

His brother would just sit completely still, not helping, not doing anything to make it _better_. While Renly was starving, miserable and felt all alone. 

Oh, how cruel childhood hopes are, and how far the heroes fall. What can you do when the approval of those older than you never comes? What is left to hope for then? So Renly chooses his own family of flowers, and when their hero falls, the remaining bucks crash until only one remains.

 

 

 

 

Together they are broken.

Davos looks at the brothers and thinks that they don't know what they are missing. They could have been the holy trinity, the strong power that held the whole place together. Robert as the charismatic leader, Stannis as the strategist, and Renly as the politician. Strength, justice and passion. Davos mourns the missed opportunities, and the missed purpose for his boss (for his friend), even if no one else does. But it is not his place to say, because family is holy, and Stannis would have his other fingers if he interfered where he wasn't wanted.

(Davos would be surprised if he knew that this was one of the few things he and Mel agreed on. She frequently wished she had known the brothers from the beginning, so much could have been saved then.)

They could have had it all, but now the only thing left is Stannis; his hands strained with fire and blood.


End file.
